I guess the underlying thesis of my world view is that:<br><br>1) There is no single magic silver bullet that will save us,<br><br>2) All the tiny little silver plated bullets don't add up to what we need and, most importantly,<br><br>3) there needs to be an absolute sea change in our attitudes and expectations about what the future holds for us.<br><br>The future is very, very bleak. It seems that $4 per gallon gas didn't drive home the point. It drops back down to $3.77 and everybody breathes a sigh of relief and carries on as usual. Next time, it goes up to $4.40 and eventually drops to $4 and the hive mind will fall back into complacency.<br><br>We are the frog in the pan of water in which the water temperature is slowly going up and we don't seem to notice. Not until the heat begins to denature our proteins will the light bulb turn on.<br><br><br>

Thanks, Dave, I know you to be a reasonable and prudent person. It DOES need to be thought about and digested. And that takes work and most people aren't interested in doing the heavy lifting.<br><br>Yes, the Bakken (and other sources) will be a small help, yes there are alternatives to be developed but my worry is that our collective sense of urgency just isn't there to drive the politicians.<br><br>

While I agree completely with your points and that a sea change is necessary, we are but frogs slowly brought to par boil temps, and that we grasp for silver bullets then lax back into complacency I hold out a little bit of hope. <br><br>America as the biggest consumer of energy has to change or we are royally screwed. That is obvious and there is no silver bullet. And gas prices dropping back to $3.72 (what I paid driving up and down the east coast last week) was depressing to me I do see a ray of hope. People are discussing the price. People are turning Hummers into the joke they should have been. There might be a few less SUVs out there right now and attitudes might actually be changing.<br><br>We saw the oil scare of the early 70s and we saw Jimmy Carter's initiatives shot down later by Reagan. If we do the same thing this time you are right, we will be but a skim coat of denatured protein floating on the world we have ruined. But I think we have at least a 50/50 chance of not repeating our same mistakes again.<br><br>Electing Obama will not be a silver bullet but it will be a start. Speaking honestly about nuclear is not a silver bullet but it will help. Ignoring this kind of cra[i][/i]p about Bakken or the Canada oil sands or all the rest of the BS which is just making a buck is not a silver bullet but we could move to something that works. Betting on one silver bullet is madness. <br><br>

All small helps add up to a big help. I hope that's what we'll (U.S.A.) be doing. Not pursuing it will get no results at all. It's like the lottery. You can't win if you don't play. <br><br>Too many lives they've spent across the ocean. Too much money been spent upon the moon. Well, until they make it right, I hope they never sleep at night. They better make some changes and do it soon. -Things Goin' On/Lynyrd Skynyrd

_________________________Well, until they make it right, I hope they never sleep at night. They better make some changes and do it soon. -Things Goin' On/Lynyrd Skynyrd

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>All small helps add up to a big help.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Sure, everything helps in a realistic world. Getting all excited about 23 day worth of oil spread over 50 years (realistic estimates for this field) just distracts from the real issues. Looking at Bakken and blaming big oil for hiding the data and considering the problem solved just lulls us into complacency like Cope's parboiled frogs.<br><br>We have to consider reality or we are cooked.<br><br><br><br><br><br>

Maybe that's why it's undetermined on snopes.com. Who knows. According to the wikipedia page on this there is an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of oil there. Sounds like a lot more than 23 days worth of oil. Drilling here and working hard on alternatives knowing we will run out of this stuff one day should get us motivated. <br><br>I do see after reading the entire article that more current estimates of quantity of oil is much lower than previously estimated. What it really means is they don't know how much is there. Shouldn't we find out?<br><br>Too many lives they've spent across the ocean. Too much money been spent upon the moon. Well, until they make it right, I hope they never sleep at night. They better make some changes and do it soon. -Things Goin' On/Lynyrd Skynyrd<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by iBookmaster on 08/17/08 07:32 PM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

_________________________Well, until they make it right, I hope they never sleep at night. They better make some changes and do it soon. -Things Goin' On/Lynyrd Skynyrd

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> According to the wikipedia page on this there is an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of oil there. <p><hr></blockquote><p>And if that is all that you get out of that wiki page we are well on our way to being parboiled. Read the whole thing. One percent of that millions is feasible for extraction. The porosity and the permeability of the strata the oil is in is a problem. One can read a sentence or two out of new data which show high pressure fracturing and horizontal drilling will make dramatic increases. Right. The one percent might go up to three percent over the next fifty years. One could restate that and say "an increase of 300%" and the mathematically impaired cheer. They'll also forget that that type of drilling and fracturing costs money deleting from the net result.<br><br>The McCain offshore drilling stance is hype. Bakken is hype. These are not silver bullets. These are drops in the bucket. They are distractions to real problems and real solutions. If you hype Bakken as a real solution you are parboiled. <br><br>

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